How to unblock a brain

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I find this interesting. I was struggling with my !$%*&@? map again yesterday. Peering at the illustration on a huge sheet of A1 paper getting nowhere fast.

Then for no real reason I decided to write up the text by ‘category’ as a word document. Hey presto! All of a sudden certain items jumped out as total nonsense, while with others I could see connections that, counter-intuitively, I hadn’t seen on paper. It sometimes works the other way around too. So if you find your mind is blocked using one medium I seriously suggest you try another.

Dystopic Thought for the Day (is that even a word?)

“Let’s imagine… if you glimpsed the future, you were frightened by what you saw, what would you do with that information? You would go to… the politicians, captains of industry? And how would you convince them? Data? Facts? Good luck!

The only facts they won’t challenge are the ones that keep the wheels greased and the dollars rolling in. But what if… what if there was a way of skipping the middle man and putting the critical news directly into everyone’s head? The probability of wide-spread annihilation kept going up. The only way to stop it was to show it. To scare people straight. Because, what reasonable human being wouldn’t be galvanized by the potential destruction of everything they’ve ever known or loved?

To save civilization, I would show its collapse. But, how do you think this vision was received? How do you think people responded to the prospect of imminent doom? They gobbled it up like a chocolate eclair! They didn’t fear their demise, they re-packaged it. It could be enjoyed as video-games, as TV shows, books, movies, the entire world wholeheartedly embraced the apocalypse and sprinted towards it with gleeful abandon. Meanwhile, your Earth was crumbling all around you. You’ve got simultaneous epidemics of obesity and starvation. Explain that one!

Bees and butterflies start to disappear, the glaciers melt, algae blooms. All around you the coal mine canaries are dropping dead and you won’t take the hint! In every moment there’s the possibility of a better future, but you people won’t believe it. And because you won’t believe it you won’t do what is necessary to make it a reality. So, you dwell on this terrible future. You resign yourselves to it for one reason, because that future does not ask anything of you today.

So yes, we saw the iceberg and warned the Titanic. But you all just steered for it anyway, full steam ahead. Why? Because you want to sink! You gave up!”

From Tomorrowland

People as Pets

A Korn Ferry study of 800 business leaders across the globe has found that business leaders think that tech will create more value than people in the future. 44 per cent of bosses go as far as saying that automation, AI and robotics (let’s create a new acronym here and call it AAIR – as it void, vacuum, full of hot…) will make staff “largely irrelevant” in the future.

Reminds me of a boss I heard about not so long ago that referred to his people as “pets” (the only reason the management team employed people at all is that regulation made the company do so).

Ref: CityAM 17.11.16 (P09)

Nice map

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Why didn’t someone think if this before! (Thanks J).

In the car today.

Radio: “If you haven’t done your Christmas shopping yet there’s still a month to go”
Me: “F*%$ off” (It’s still November)
Radio: “We’re giving an Amazon Echo away. It’s great. I mean She. There’s a person inside”
Me: “FC*£@@!!*&%$$K off” (There’s not)

Richard Watson on The Future, Automation and AI

I did a talk at the University of Northampton Business School last week, but before I started I spoke to John Griff at BBC Radio Northampton. The funny thing was that while I’d been told about this well in advance I’d totally forgotten. Hence zero preparation on my part. But guess what, because I didn’t prepare anything I didn’t obsess about what I was going to say and therefore didn’t screw it up (also due to an excellent interviewer that asked some good questions and put me at ease btw).

One of my more intelligent interviews with a great ending…

BBC iPlayer….(spool on to 1 minute 15 seconds)